"Pete Rose and 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson are no longer official baseball pariahs. In a seismic decision that will alter the legacies of 17 disgraced baseball players..."

"...Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced Tuesday that players punished with permanent ineligibility will be reinstated after their deaths. Players on MLB’s permanently ineligible list are banned from entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, meaning Rose, baseball’s all-time hits leader who died last year at 83, Jackson and the other deceased players who were banned will now be eligible for inclusion...."

WaPo reports.

Was this Trump's doing?! "Rose, whose ineligibility left a polarizing void at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, died in September. Not only has his family petitioned Manfred on his behalf since then, but so has President Donald Trump, with whom Manfred met at the White House last month.... [The decision comes] roughly 24 hours before the Cincinnati Reds planned to honor Rose with a celebration of his achievements at Great American Ball Park on Wednesday night. That event is one of the first sanctioned celebrations of Rose’s achievements since he was banned from the sport 36 years ago."

Manfred interpreted the phrase "permanently ineligible" in light of the purpose of the rule (Rule 21). Once the person is dead, he's no longer "a threat to the integrity of the game." 

Just before his death, Rose said: "I’ve come to the conclusion — I hope I’m wrong — that I’ll make the Hall of Fame after I die." Hopes he's wrong???

"Legally, the lifetime ban is over. His lifetime is over."

Said Jeffrey Lenkov, Pete Rose's lawyer, quoted in an ESPN report that says, "Commissioner Rob Manfred is considering a petition filed on Jan. 8 by Pete Rose's family to have Major League Baseball's all-time hit leader posthumously removed from baseball's ineligible list...."

Here's yesterday's post about Trump's plan to pardon Rose and his statement that "Baseball, which is dying all over the place, should get off its fat, lazy ass, and elect Pete Rose, even though far too late, into the Baseball Hall of Fame!"

"Baseball, which is dying all over the place, should get off its fat, lazy ass, and elect Pete Rose, even though far too late, into the Baseball Hall of Fame!"

Writes Donald Trump (on Truth Social):

Major League Baseball didn’t have the courage or decency to put the late, great, Pete Rose, also known as “Charlie Hustle,” into the Baseball Hall of fame. Now he is dead, will never experience the thrill of being selected, even though he was a FAR BETTER PLAYER than most of those who made it, and can only be named posthumously. WHAT A SHAME! Anyway, over the next few weeks I will be signing a complete PARDON of Pete Rose, who shouldn’t have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on HIS TEAM WINNING. He never betted against himself, or the other team. He had the most hits, by far, in baseball history, and won more games than anyone in sports history. Baseball, which is dying all over the place, should get off its fat, lazy ass, and elect Pete Rose, even though far too late, into the Baseball Hall of Fame!

I'm disconcerted that the President of the United States wrote "betted," but I'm amused at the metaphorical flourish of "dying all over the place" and "fat, lazy ass." 

To me, "betted" is embarrassingly wrong, but I see Shakespeare used it. From the OED:

1600 Iohn a Gaunt loued him well, and betted much money on his head. W. Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2 iii. ii. 44

If you use "fat, lazy ass" metaphorically — baseball doesn't even have an ass — you do flout the niceties of the body acceptance movement, but Trump is well aware that his own ass is fat and thus presents a big target for his antagonists. He doesn't care. It's a fat ass, but emphatically not a lazy ass.

Trump takes a stand on the Pete Rose issue.

Pete Rose played Major League Baseball for 24 seasons, from 1963-1986, and had more hits, 4,256, than any other player (by a wide margin). He gambled, but only on his own team winning, and paid a decades long price. GET PETE ROSE INTO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. It’s Time!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2020

Equal justice for ball.

BREAKING: Pete Rose asks MLB for reinstatement, cites no punishment for Astros players for electronic signs-stealing. "There cannot be one set of rules for Mr. Rose and another for everyone else," Rose's 20-page petition to Manfred says. https://t.co/9CRCHBXkUy

— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) February 5, 2020

"I would love to see vintage Pete Rose in today’s game. He would get absolutely annihilated."

"Guys that are striking out 200 times, like Joey Gallo — in 1990 he would have hit 75 home runs every year because he’s facing guys with an average velocity of 90 miles an hour, good command and O.K. breaking balls," said Trevor Bauer, quoted in in "Trevor Bauer, Baseball’s Imperfect Evangelist" (NYT).

Strikeout and home run rates have never been higher in the majors, and walk rates are at a 10-year peak. To Bauer, those three so-called true outcomes indicate that the game is better than it has ever been — and held to a different standard from basketball and football.

“The N.B.A. is true outcomes: Either dunk the ball or shoot a 3, and that’s the direction it’s going,” he said. “The N.F.L. is more true-outcome based, as well: throwing high-percentage passes. So other sports are going this way, but they’ve found a way to make it popular.”

"Pete Rose’s attorney: ‘We do not know how Mr. Trump got the ball.'"

Well, since I blogged Trump's tweet with the baseball yesterday, I guess I'm obligated to blog this Washington Post story today. But, man, the trivia! And why can't WaPo get a statement from Rose himself? We get his lawyer? Ugh.

“We do not know how Mr. Trump got the ball,” Genco said. “I can’t authenticate the ball from some Twitter picture.” He added: “I can’t speak to how Trump got the ball. Pete didn’t send it. I made that clear.”

How does Genco know?

“Pete has made a point not to ‘endorse’ any particular presidential candidate,” Genco wrote. “Though he respects everyone who works hard for our country — any outlet that misinterpreted a signed baseball for an endorsement was wrong. Pete did not send any candidate a baseball or a note of endorsement. That said, through my discussions with Pete about this cycle, I’ve learned that he believes that who to vote for is a decision each voter should decide for him or herself. Pete knows and has impressed upon me that, above politics, it’s leadership and teamwork [that] make all the difference. Both the left and right are Baseball fans — and it is those institutions and their people that make America exceptional.”

A lawyer talked like a lawyer. I'm supposed to believe that Pete "impressed upon" Genco something about "leadership and teamwork" "above politics"? Also, why capitalize "Baseball"? Blecch.

IN THE COMMENTS: Bob Boyd said:

GOP issues statement summing up the entire 2016 primary election.

“We do not know how Mr. Trump got the ball.” 

"Commissioner Rob Manfred says Pete Rose will be allowed to participate in activities surrounding this summer's All-Star Game in his hometown of Cincinnati."

"Rose, baseball's career hits leader and a former Reds star player and manager, agreed to a lifetime ban from the sport in 1989 after a Major League Baseball investigation concluded he bet on his team to win while he was managing the club."

Reaction?

Great!

Uh... not sure...

Terrible.

Don't even understand what the hell this is....

 

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"It's a shame. He took over management in 2008 and he turned the team around, getting into the playoffs..."

"... but they just can't win in the playoffs. That's very important. That's baseball. They say that about all kinds of things, but when a team does not advance, then it's management. I'm sad for Dusty, because I think this will be the end of his career. He had that heart attack last season, and he's 65 or 64, and now, if you'll excuse me, I have things I need to know, like 5 things I need to know about Jodie Foster's new girlfriend."

That's what Meade said when I requested a quote on the occasion of the Cincinnati Reds firing Dusty Baker. Meade, who moved to Madison from Cincinnati, has been a Reds fan since 1972, when the Reds were in the World Series and — Meade starts talking again — "they were just an exciting team. That was the beginning of The Big Red Machine. Probably what really drew me to them in 1972 was Pete Rose. I kind of hated him, but I was fascinated by him."

"So have you learned anything about Jodie Foster's new girlfriend?"

"Yeah, she's Ellen DeGeneres's old girlfriend...."

"Anything else?"

"She's tall, dark, and handsome."

"That might offend people. Is that in the article?"

"Yeah. No."

"Jeter became the 28th player in history to reach 3,000 hits, but only the second to do so with a home run..."

"... the other was Wade Boggs for Tampa Bay in 1999."

Only Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron and Robin Yount joined the club at a younger age than Jeter, who turned 37 on June 26.

That puts Jeter ahead of the pace set by Pete Rose, the career hits leader, who retired at age 45 with 4,256....

Only one other player, Honus Wagner, reached 3,000 hits while still a regular shortstop. Wagner did it in 1914.

“Physically, you have a responsibility that can be difficult, and mentally as well, you have to be in every pitch, every game,” Jeter said, referring to shortstop. “So there’s probably a reason why there’s not too many guys that have played the position that have had that amount of hits. I take pride in it. This is my job. This is the only thing I’ve done.”